Canon City News

Alyssa Alexander, a front office staff member at the Humane Society of Fremont County, works Jan. 4 at the shelter. The agency is feeling the effects of Colorado's minimum wage hike. (Sara Knuth / Daily Record)

In a staff meeting at the beginning of the new year, Doug Rae asked his employees to start thinking about how to bring more money into the Humane Society of Fremont County.

"I said, 'The new minimum wage went into effect the first of the year,'" Rae said. "'I want you to know how that impacts us as a business and where that money comes from. And I need everybody to start thinking about how to bring more money in. How can we cut expenses?'"

By 2020, the shelter will allocate $38,632 more to minimum wage salaries, which are rising in line with Colorado's minimum wage increase approved by voters in 2016.

On New Year's Day, the wage rose from $9.30 to $10.20 an hour, completing the second step in the state's gradual climb to $12 by 2020. Next year, the wage will increase to $11.10.

But for some Fremont County nonprofits that employ minimum wage workers, the hike could mean putting less toward services and more toward employees.

Rae, the humane society's executive director, said the shelter operates on a $550,000 budget and receives most of its funding from donations. The rest of its money — 19 percent of it — comes from local governments, including Fremont County, Cañon City, Florence, Williamsburg, Rockvale, Coal Creek and Custer County. At the end of last year, the shelter made a total of $11,000.

To keep up with the wage increase, Rae said the shelter had to start putting more of that money toward its eight minimum wage workers. For the increase in 2017, the organization set aside $8,009 — "certainly nothing to sneeze at," Rae said. "It's significant for us since I run a pretty tight budget here."

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But the real problem, he said, will start happening this year and continue into 2020. This year, $17,918 will go to the increased wages. In 2019, that number will be at $28,459.

"If the business remains the same as right now, I don't even know how we're going to keep our doors open come 2019, especially 2020, because that's significant," he said, but later added he wouldn't let the shelter close if he could help it.

Rae also said those numbers don't factor in raises that would need to go toward humane society employees who make more than the minimum wage.

"The minimum wage now is getting so close to what the manager's is," he said. "That has to be tacked on here. I just don't know what that is or how we're going to do that yet."

As more money goes to wages, Rae said less of it will go toward the items the shelter needs to care for animals.

New cat cages, for one, would cost the shelter $62,000.

"We desperately need new cat cages," Rae said. "I can't get those cat cages now. I don't see that happening any time through here unless we get a dramatic revenue flow through this building over the next couple years. We've cut expenses as much as they could possibly be cut so far."

To make up for the latest round of wage increases, Rae said, the shelter cut four vacations from employees. In the future, he isn't sure how the organization will make up for the funding loss.

Recently, the humane society considered raising the cost of adoptions, but since it is an open admission shelter, workers don't want to risk decreasing the number of adoptions and losing space for other animals.

"I can't imagine anybody's not in my position, where it's going to make it very hard on them to manage the day-to-day business with this increase," Rae said. "This is good for the employees, but it's really hard for the smaller agencies like ours."

For the Boys & Girls Club of Fremont County, the impact has been similar. Terry Hamilton, the organization's CEO, said the clubs have been able to absorb the impact of the hike so far, but in the next few years, it will take a bigger toll.

"We've always tried to keep our staff at above minimum wage, partially as a retention policy and just wanting to take care of our staff," he said. "And so, when minimum wage was what it was at $9.30, we were bringing everyone in at $10 an hour because we could afford that. And then all of a sudden, it goes to $10.30, and it's like, well now what do we do?"

Still, not every nonprofit in Fremont County that employs minimum wage workers has been in the same situation.

Stacey Cline, director of the Museum of Colorado Prisons, said the nonprofit raised the price of admission last year when the law went into effect. The museum, which charges $8 for adults, relies on ticket sales, donations and grants to operate.

But outside of raising ticket prices, Cline said the museum hasn't experienced any setbacks. The organization employs four full-time and three seasonal minimum wage employees.

"You're happy that it's becoming a wage that people can live on, at least I am. I'm happy for them," she said. "As an employer, you've just got to rethink how you spend because you need people. You need to be able to run your business."

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